Multiple QoS Parameters-Based Routing for Civil Aeronautical Ad Hoc Networks

Aeronautical ad hoc network (AANET) can be applied as in-flight communication systems to allow aircraft to communicate with the ground, in complement to other existing communication systems to support Internet of Things. However, the unique features of civil AANETs present a great challenge to provide efficient and reliable data delivery in such environments. In this paper, we propose a multiple quality of service parameters-based routing protocol (MQSPR), to improve the overall network performance for communication between aircraft and the ground. The proposed MQSPR integrates path availability period, residual path load capacity and path latency in route selection and presents a broadcast optimization scheme to minimize flooding. The primary aim of MQSPR is to maintain long link durations, achieve path load balancing and reduce end-to-end delay to satisfy the requirements of civil aviation communication services. The simulation scenario and real-world scenario are set up, respectively, and the experimental results show that the proposed MQSPR can achieve high ground connectivity while effectively increase the path durations, improve the packet delivery ratio and perform the path load balancing. In addition, the flexibility of MQSPR is demonstrated by considering weighting factors of path selection parameters.